I like Maleficent the way she is, Not Tim Burton-ized. I dont really like the idea of HBC playing the role of Maleficent. Her laugh as Bellatrix seemed annoying to me in Harry Potter and i fear she may over do it.

Who knows? I could be wrong and she may actually make a very good Maleficent. I did like her in Planet of the Apes(Am i the only one that likes the one that Tim Burtin made?? ) and i was kinda iffy with her in the one Frankenstien movie, but i eventually did like her in that..

But still, the Maleficent that i know and love is from the cartoon Sleeping Beauty.

Guillermo Del Toro would be pretty interesting, he did say his favorite dragon of all time was.. Insert drum roll.. Maleficent! I actually read that on a Lord of the Rings wiki when reading about Smaug, the Red-Gold Dragon..

I dont really like the idea of HBC playing the role of Maleficent. Her laugh as Bellatrix seemed annoying to me in Harry Potter and i fear she may over do it.

I think it's because she intentionally camps it up in Harry Potter (at least to me). But she's an amazing actor in loads of other movies (A Room with a View, Lady Jane, Howards End, The Wings of the Dove, Sixty Six, etc.)

Then again, she may camp it up for camp's sake in Maleficent.

Kraken Guard wrote:

Who knows? I could be wrong and she may actually make a very good Maleficent. I did like her in Planet of the Apes(Am i the only one that likes the one that Tim Burtin made?? )

I like it too. It raises some issues not addressed in the original (namely a stronger possibility of ape/human romance, as well as a more complex caste system among the apes), whilst also providing its own unique take on the concept ("inferior" species suddenly ruling over the "superior" one). It's not Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston, nor is it meant to be (even if Heston has a cameo in the Burton one). Plus, for everything that was *wrong* with the movie, they did score a few things that were *right*. Namely, Tim Roth and his portrayal of Thade. It was absolutely chilling and one of his best roles, IMO.

albert

_________________WIST #56: Aaron: With Mary Poppins and Pete's Dragon on Blu-ray, Bedknobs & Broomsticks seems like a given. Come on, Disney! They could even call it the Naboom-Blu Edition!

Okay, that makes me feel a little bit better with Planet of the Apes.. If you want a really bad movie, try Battlefield Earth (Although i like that movie, dont see anything wrong with it )

But i still think what i thought before: Im not too sure if i like the idea of Tim Burton making a movie based on Maleficent. I dont want him turning my favoritest character of all time into a Charley and the Chocolate Factory Look-Alike or a large-headed Iracebeth. (From Alice in Wonderland.. Never seen it, but i do know her name thanks to roleplaying)

I like his movies (Sleepy Hollow, Nightmare Before Christmas, Planet of the Apes, some of the Batman movies) but recently, they just seemed to have lost their touch (Charley and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd) and i dont like the idea of HBC Doing Maleficent because of the laugh and the behavior as Iracebeth. It's fitting for that character, but not Maleficent. But as i said before, i could be wrong and she may make a good Maleficent, i just hope she doesn't over do it..

Worse comes to worse, he could always take stabs at a movie based on the Horned King(Dont really like the idea, but i suppose it would be interesting). He did have something to do with the Black Cauldron after all..

And what was this talk of things in the Black Cauldron that resemble Face-Huggers? John Hurt has had enough of those things as it is! (Twice: Once in Alian, once in Spaceballs) Now we need the Horned King suffering the same fate..

I also like Burton's Planet of the Apes, that main villain ape did scare the freak out of me, and the whole film made me fear such things the movie touched on. Did people just not think it was good because they liked the first one too much?

And that Burton Horned King concept art is amazingly awesome, though it would not have fit into the film or what the Horned King is supposed to be like at all.

I just posted this thread separately elewhere on this website : I haven't been on the Ultimate Disney website for quite a while now , I did a brief search just now but couldn't find a dedicated thread to Maleficent - so tell me is Maleficent the Moviegoing to happen?

There was a lot of talk , about twelve months since , about a Tim Burton directed movie all about the Horned Witch from Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty having her own backstory movie a la Wicked for Elphaba the Wicked witch of The West!

So , come on guys , is there any more news on this planned movie , and is Tim Burton going to direct , who is going to play Maleficent is it going to be Angelina Joile , or Helena Bonham Carter???

On January 19, 2010, it was announced that after Dark Shadows Burton's next project would be a Wicked-style adaption featuring the origin story and the past of the Sleeping Beauty antagonist Maleficent. In an interview with Fandango published February 23, 2010, however, he denied he was directing any upcoming Sleeping Beauty movie.[25] However, on November 23, 2010, in an interview with MTV, Burton confirmed that he was indeed putting together a script for "Maleficent". [26] Burton has also stated that there is a chance he will co-produce with Timur Bekmambetov, who he also co-produced 9 with, the movie Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, which is based on the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, also author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

On January 19, 2010, it was announced that after Dark Shadows Burton's next project would be a Wicked-style adaption featuring the origin story and the past of the Sleeping Beauty antagonist Maleficent. In an interview with Fandango published February 23, 2010, however, he denied he was directing any upcoming Sleeping Beauty movie.[25] However, on November 23, 2010, in an interview with MTV, Burton confirmed that he was indeed putting together a script for "Maleficent". [26] Burton has also stated that there is a chance he will co-produce with Timur Bekmambetov, who he also co-produced 9 with, the movie Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, which is based on the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, also author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

MTV: I spoke to Angelina Jolie recently, and she said she's a huge fan of yours and is anxious to make "Maleficent" with you.

Burton: I'd love to work with her. We're working on a script for that. It's hard to know when that script will be ready. But I'm a huge fan, I'd love to work with her -- so, yeah, that would be a good one.

I think this idea has potential–Maleficent has the same sort of open backstory that the Wicked Witch of the West does–but I'm ambivalent about Burton. I like him just fine, but as a director, he's never really grown as a director to me. (Although, hey, who knows–I think Maguire, the gentleman who wrote Wicked suffers from the same thing.)

And I'd prefer Angelina Jolie over Helena Bonham Carter–I like HBC (she's quite fantastic in Twelfth Night!), but rarely in anything Burton directs. I can see Jolie starting from a fairly innocent or ordinary woman who ends up as Maleficent, if that's the direction they go–I feel as though a Burton-directed Carter would start too far along the process. I would love to be proven wrong, though.

The problem I have with any "My Side of the Story" twist on Maleficent is that she is not a "human" character (like, say, Lady Tremaine or Captain Hook) -- where her antagonistic behavior might be worth exploring from an alternate point-of-view and emotional origin.

But Maleficent, rather than human, is an "evil fairy", an elemental representational creature of black magic and dark symbolism - - the self-professed "Mistress of All Evil" - - her existence is simply to create chaos. To rationalize or humanize that is to destroy the character and concept for the mere sake of politically correct deconstruction.

The value she posesses as a storytelling symbol/archetype (the embodiment of our greatest fears to be conquered) would be destroyed.

The problem I have with any "My Side of the Story" twist on Maleficent is that she is not a "human" character (like, say, Lady Tremaine or Captain Hook) -- where her antagonistic behavior might be worth exploring from an alternate point-of-view and emotional origin.

But Maleficent, rather than human, is an "evil fairy", an elemental representational creature of black magic and dark symbolism - - the self-professed "Mistress of All Evil" - - her existence is simply to create chaos. To rationalize or humanize that is to destroy the character and concept for the mere sake of politically correct deconstruction.

The value she posesses as a storytelling symbol/archetype (the embodiment of our greatest fears to be conquered) would be destroyed.

Someone hasn't read Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. That novel totally humanized Elphaba (aka the Wicked Witch of the West) and we see everything from her point of view, from birth to death. Not only providing a lot of back story, it also shows how she came in contact with Dorothy and why she wanted the ruby slippers (not out of spite, mind you). I think a telling of Maleficient's story would be a great opportunity to showcase how/why she became evil. Now, I don't know if Tim Burton is the perfect person to direct the film, but the idea within itself is great. Just as long as they don't follow Wicked, it could turn out to be a rather good film.

>>Someone hasn't read Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.<<

Actually, I did read the novel and attended the musical as well. I was very much intrigued by the set-up of a rivalry between Elphaba and Glinda and how their personal interests conflicted, but I feel the second half of that story disintegrates as it tries to dovetail into "The Wizard of Oz" clumsily with sympathetic political correctness for the Witch's actions (mischaracterized by political rivals).

More interesting would have been if Elphaba, driven by her experience demons then begins to make poor choices/decisions that shape the villain (more like Anakin Skywalker or Lex Luthor on "Smallville", which explain motivation but don't deny that the evil deeds came to be).

Though audiences respond favorably to "Wicked" in that they are super-familiar with the characters in advance - - I do feel that in that instance too, their more powerful roles as archetypes of good and evil in the Baum books and MGM film are compromised by the deconstruction in the new work (moreso when it is made into the inevitable major motion picture).

Having even less pre-existing plot to work with, Maleficent can never be more than a tired attempt to duplicate Wicked's success and beat the same contemporary thematic drum.

That said, an elemental creature/fairy/demon is not the same thing as a human witch.

One thing–my favorite part about Wicked, the novel, is how we never see inside Elphaba's head and yet still come to sympathize and understand her; we are always reading about the way she weaves in and out of other people's stories, from their perspectives. I know what you mean when you say her point of view, but strictly speaking, we almost never see her from her perspective (save the opening scene and, perhaps, the very end–but, as River Song would say, spoilers!). The musical also cleans up the novel considerably; Elphaba is tasked, for political purposes, to murder someone at one point.

And telling the backstory of a character who doesn't have much of one doesn't mean slavishingly following the success of Wicked–although this project certainly smells of it. It's been done countless times–Wide Sargasso Sea, Nothing Like the Sun, Grendel… just to scratch the surface with a little finger. While I certainly agree applying that idea to a beloved classic feels quite a lot like Wicked, I think, if done well, the idea can rise above it and become timeless, like the classic "retellings" (which is the publishing industry's word for "fanfiction") I've just listed. It's not doomed from the start.

Elphaba was someone who tried to murder someone because they were in a powerful position and doing bad to the world. She was meant to blur the lines of what is good and what is evil. The musical makes her appear too innocent. And The Wicked Witch of the West is not the same as Maleficent.

Maleficent calles herself the Mistress of All Evil and uses the powers of Hell to try and kill someone who just got in her way of making complete misery for people, not to mention try to kill a baby just for not being invited.

Yes, she's an evil fairy who has horns on her head. Horns.

Why do we have to show "how" every single person "became" evil? You don't think any one decides to purposely be evil? Well, some people just might.

The only thing I could accept would be for Maleficent to perhaps have been a good fairy like the three good fairies, and after something that makes her mad, instead of just making some bad mistake in anger, she really, truly decides to become evil and join the forces of Hell.

Some Disney book said she may even have been good at one point and been in King Stephen's court. I wish I knew if that was true.

But Maleficent, rather than human, is an "evil fairy", an elemental representational creature of black magic and dark symbolism - - the self-professed "Mistress of All Evil" - - her existence is simply to create chaos. To rationalize or humanize that is to destroy the character and concept for the mere sake of politically correct deconstruction.

The value she posesses as a storytelling symbol/archetype (the embodiment of our greatest fears to be conquered) would be destroyed.

Completely agree. I think this is the reason most people see her as one of Disney's greatest villains, if not the greatest (and I'm sure that's what most of the public would think). To some extent, all Disney's villains are a bit of evil personified, but I think that it could likely be best said for Maleficent. Ursula, Cruella, the Queen, etc. are all fairly human. Even if they're a little exaggerated, they're given motives, and pretty human one's. Maleficent isn't really given a motive, other than to be evil really; I always had the impression she was actually supposed to be more of a demon than a person (until this forum made me question whether she has horns or just a horned headdress). She's more of what the old idea of a fairy would be than Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather.

Like you said about the current "My Side" stories, they always try to make the characters better. Why can't they just make someone who goes bad? Those kinds of people do exist. That would be much less cliche at this point.

Tim Burton has moved off of Maleficent, the Disney fantasy that would have teamed him with Angelina Jolie.

Maleficent is Disney’s live-action take on Sleeping Beauty, telling the fairy tale from the point of view of the evil witch who threatened to kill the princess. Disney years ago put a name to the witch, who had gone anonymous in the various tellings. Since then, the green-skinned queen of evil who morphs into a dragon has become one of the most popular Disney villains of all time.

Burton was only loosely attached to the project but his involvement was significant enough that last year the studio hired Burton's Alice in Wonderland collaborator Linda Woolverton, who also wrote Disney’s The Lion King, to pen the script. The project is being developed as a starring vehicle for Jolie.

Disney is not about to put Maleficent into a suspended-animation sleep. The studio is now on the hunt for a new director. One of the names that has surfaced in the early search is David Yates, who helmed the past four Harry Potter movies.

And Burton hasn’t left Disney. He's currently working on the feature-length stop-motion version of his 1984 short Frankenweenie. The movie is due for release on Oct. 5, 2012.

After seeing Burton's Alice in Wonderland I think this may be for the best after all.

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